My ‘pitch’ (for an hour in a local council-owned leisure facility, remember) included stats on women’s participation in sport locally, figures on obesity and domestic violence in the area and a detailed ‘menu of opportunity’ hilighting the need for the netball programme in the area!
He wasn’t having a bar of it - until I pulled out one of the leisure centre’s timetables that I had taken the trouble to colour code with opportunities for males to take part in activities, opportunities for women to participate and opportunities for mixed gender. It will come as no surprise it was male dominated. (By some margin I may add).
Having already mentioned my strong ties with the local newspaper and I had hotfooted it from an appearance on local radio to be at the meeting - I think he got the point and gave me what I wanted!😉
It really shouldn’t be that difficult, at a local authority facility, to secure an hour of time on a netball court though.
I’ve had vast experience of booking various facilities across my county. Both indoors and outdoors, leisure centres - mainly run by private companies on behalf of local authorities now, schools - who seem to be heading the same way, especially those with Academy status and private courts run by community groups, entrepreneurs and church organisations.
I’ve received many different levels of customer service at these places! The best levels always seem to be outside courts where you are often out on your own - no groups before or after you and no big music systems or class equipment to put away! The drawbacks normally include toilets being half a mile away, teenage groups hanging around either to intimidate (purposely or not) or cause trouble and occasionally having to clean up glass or dog poop before we can start.
By far the worst customer service is when the staff members have no idea about netball - the posts come out but they have no idea where to put them. They are late because they’re aren’t enough of them and they double up as lifeguards. They’re there earning minimum wage for unsocial hours with little appreciation from Managers, who are locked away in offices counting the revenue. They have no opportunity for career progression because there are no sports development teams anymore (shout out to Eastleigh Borough Council, who not only have an AMAZING Sports Development team they are a great example of how they impact all areas of the local community positively!)
That’s when you can get in to the sports facilities by the way! I have two examples of brand new indoor facilities that were left abandoned or can’t be used by the local community!
One is a sports hall, built in an inner city school, but isn’t allowed to be hired to the public as the school didn’t realise it had to pay VAT on the build and owes HMRC £2million! I’m not an expert in building, accounting or education but surely common sense should prevail - the school should be able to hire out facilities in order to pay the VAT bill quicker and the local community can use the hall to the improve social deprivation, obesity and other health issues, in the area.
The other example is in a more rural location, where a new housing site was being built - as with all housing projects various facilities and amenities normally need to be built alongside housing, at the cost of the developer. I kept hearing wonderful things about this new small, community sports hall and was looking forward to viewing and using! Unfortunately it took over a year from full completion to it first being open - because the developers, local parish council and County Council could decide who ‘owned’ it and who had responsibility to run it!
A whole brand spanking new netball court (OK other sports could be played on it too!) stood there waiting to be played on but the doors remained locked!
I’m not a political animal (although I made sure I vote when required) but I do remember a more positive time when local councils ran their own facilities - they weren’t without problem but space seemed to be easier to book, it was definitely cheaper and sports groups had relationships with Sports Development Officers and colleagues to actually progress, promote and provide opportunities for participation in all sorts of sports.
Our local leisure centre (the only accessible indoor 2 court facility in the city) had its floor re laid recently. The previous floor has been down since before I was born so you could say it was a bit overdue! I managed to arrange a meeting there on the day I knew it was meant to be finished and I will admit to finding an unlocked door and having a little jump on it in celebration! Always the rebel! It was and is, beautiful! Sprung (godsend for anyone who’s been through ACL rehab) and the netball lines are purple - my favourite colour!
It is a crying shame therefore, that the kick boards that separate the two courts, mostly made up of MDF and gaffer tape patches and the ripped and stained surrounding curtains were not also replaced!
The cherry on top by the way......... a model railway exhibition was the first event the new sprung floor welcomed onto its shiny lines! 🙄
It’s not all bad of course, I have struck up relationships with various facility staff members over the years and benefitted from the effort. The best example, of course, is the generosity shown when I’ve organised charity netball festivals. I have had several local facilities give me sports hall or court time for free and have always been exceptionally grateful, particularly publicly, for their support.
I’m not sure what the answer is to more equality in our sports centres and better access to netball courts for our growing number of ‘ballers. It all boils down to cost of course and I don’t see many new facilities or courts being built in the near future!
I am attending a ‘focus group’ soon, organised by the local university who are tentatively building a very exciting inner city sports facility. I am positive about contributing my experiences and excited about the prospect that this new facility will be organised and run in an entirely different and maybe, even fairer, way! I am also interested in what is going to happen to their existing sports facilities - a vast outdoor site on the edge of the city which is well maintained and very popular with the local community. There are also two indoor sports hall in central locations, neither one has anything wrong with them and are categorically NOT surplus to requirements.
My hope is that there are lots of opportunities for progression for sports in the city, the new facility could be a catalyst of change for good!
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